Nostalgia & History > Time For A Santa Fe Break

Santa Fe 2332 is at the yards in Richmond CA on Jan 4, 1953. Ralph Buhr Photo.

Thanks For looking,

Tom

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Looks like the 2332 is equipped with radio and a "Wagon Wheel" ground plane antenna. Many youngsters at the time these were new, surely wondered if that was the "steering wheel"! I was almost nine months old when this was taken!

Thanks for sharing this fine image!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

I used to repair the radios for these switchers at San Bernardino. Some of them had Bendix MRT-8s, which had three modules fitted into a rack with connectors at the rear. The whole assembly was mounted in a heavy sheet-metal box on the hood right ahead of the cab. If the radio failed, the tech had to guess which module had gone bad, climb up on the nose, walk past the smokestack which was emitting rich, fragrant clouds of Alco smoke, and replace the module. By the time I got into the business, the MRT-8s were on their way out, but those still in service had worn out connectors. One of our techs had come up with a "fix" for this condition: An assembly made of angle iron which clamped the modules tightly in place with a pair of bolts. We learned to alway carry a socket wrench when faced with one of these units. Ah, the bad old days of tube-type radios!